Method for reducing lock manipulation overhead during access to critical code sections

ABSTRACT

One embodiment of the present invention supports execution of a start transactional execution (STE) instruction, which marks the beginning of a block of instructions to be executed transactionally. Upon encountering the STE instruction during execution of a program, the system commences transactional execution of the block of instructions following the STE instruction. Changes made during this transactional execution are not committed to the architectural state of the processor until the transactional execution successfully completes.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application hereby claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 60/447,128, filed on 13 Feb. 2003,entitled “Transactional Memory,” by inventors Shailender Chaudhry, MarcTremblay and Quinn Jacobson.

This application is also related to a non-provisional U.S. patentapplication entitled, “Commit Instruction to Support TransactionalProgram Execution,” by inventors Shailender Chaudhry Marc Tremblay andQuinn A. Jacobson, filed on the same day as the instant application(Ser. No. 10/637169).

This application is also related to a non-provisional U.S. patentapplication entitled, “Fail Instruction to Support Transactional ProgramExecution,” by inventors Shailender Chaudhry Marc Tremblay and Quinn A.Jacobson, filed on the same day as the instant application (Ser. No.10/637,169).

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to techniques for improving theperformance of computer systems. More specifically, the presentinvention relates to a method and an apparatus for avoiding the overheadinvolved in using locks by transactionally executing critical sectionsof code.

2. Related Art

Computer system designers are presently developing mechanisms to supportmulti-threading within the latest generation of Chip-Multiprocessors(CMPs) as well as more traditional Shared Memory Multiprocessors (SMPs).With proper hardware support, multi-threading can dramatically increasethe performance of numerous applications. However, as microprocessorperformance continues to increase, the time spent synchronizing betweenthreads (processes) is becoming a large fraction of overall executiontime. In fact, as multi-threaded applications begin to use even morethreads, this synchronization overhead becomes the dominant factor inlimiting application performance.

From a programmer's perspective, synchronization is generallyaccomplished through the use locks. A lock is typically acquired beforea thread enters a critical section of code, and is released after thethread exits the critical section. If another thread wants to enter thesame critical section, it must acquire the same lock. If it is unable toacquire the lock, because a preceding thread has grabbed the lock, thethread must wait until the preceding thread releases the lock. (Notethat a lock can be implemented in a number of ways, such as throughatomic operations or semaphores.)

Unfortunately, the process of acquiring a lock and the process ofreleasing a lock are very time-consuming in modem microprocessors. Theyinvolve atomic operations, which typically flush the load buffer andstore buffer, and can consequently require hundreds, if not thousands,of processor cycles to complete.

Moreover, as multi-threaded applications use more threads, more locksare required. For example, if multiple threads need to access a shareddata structure, it is impractical for performance reasons to use asingle lock for the entire data structure. Instead, it is preferable touse multiple fine-grained locks to lock small portions of the datastructure. This allows multiple threads to operate on different portionsof the data structure in parallel. However, it also requires a singlethread to acquire and release multiple locks in order to accessdifferent portions of the data structure.

In some cases, locks are used when they are not required. For example,many applications make use of “thread-safe” library routines that uselocks to ensure that they are “thread-safe” for multi-threadedapplications. Unfortunately, the overhead involved in acquiring andreleasing these locks is still incurred, even when the thread-safelibrary routines are called by a single-threaded application.

Applications typically use locks to ensure mutual exclusion withincritical sections of code. However, in many cases threads will notinterfere with each other, even if they are allowed to execute acritical section simultaneously. In these cases, mutual exclusion isused to prevent the unlikely case in which threads actually interferewith each other. Consequently, in these cases, the overhead involved inacquiring and releasing locks is largely wasted.

Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus that reduces theoverhead involved in manipulating locks when accessing critical sectionsof code.

Although compilers and special-purpose hardware can be developed toautomatically solve some of the above-described problems, in many cases,it is desirable to provide instruction-level support to enableprogrammers and compilers to control such solutions.

Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus that providesinstruction-level support to solve the above-described problems.

SUMMARY

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that supportsa start transactional execution (STE) instruction, wherein the STEinstruction marks the beginning of a block of instructions to beexecuted transactionally. Upon encountering the STE instruction duringexecution of a program, the system commences transactional execution ofa block of instructions following the STE instruction. Changes madeduring this transactional execution are not committed to thearchitectural state of the processor until the transactional executionsuccessfully completes (which means that it completes without violatingthe memory consistency model or without other errors).

In a variation on this embodiment, the STE instruction specifies anaction to take if transactional execution of the block of instructionsfails.

In a further variation, the action to take can include branching to alocation specified by the STE instruction.

In a further variation, the action to take can include acquiring a lockon the block of instructions.

In a further variation, the action to take can include setting stateinformation within the processor to indicate a failure duringtransactional execution of the block of instructions. This enables othersoftware executed by the processor to manage the failure.

In a variation on this embodiment, potentially interfering data accessesfrom other processes are allowed to proceed during the transactionalexecution of the block of instructions.

In a variation on this embodiment, if the transactional executioncompletes without encountering an interfering data access from anotherprocess or other type of failure, the system atomically commits changesmade during the transactional execution to the architectural state ofthe processor, and resumes normal non-transactional execution.

In a variation on this embodiment, if an interfering data access fromanother process is encountered during the transactional execution, thesystem discards changes made during the transactional execution, andattempts to re-execute the block of instructions.

In a variation on this embodiment, the block of instructions to beexecuted transactionally comprises a critical section.

In a variation on this embodiment, commencing transactional execution ofthe block of instructions involves saving the state of processorregisters. It also involves configuring the processor to mark cachelines during loads and stores that take place during transactionalexecution. It additionally involves configuring the processor tocontinually monitor data references from other threads to detectinterfering data references.

In a variation on this embodiment, the STE instruction is a nativemachine code instruction of the processor.

In a variation on this embodiment, the STE instruction is defined in aplatform-independent programming language.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system thatfacilitates executing a commit instruction, which marks the end of ablock of instructions to be executed transactionally. Upon encounteringthe commit instruction during execution of a program, the systemsuccessfully completes transactional execution of the block ofinstructions preceding the commit instruction. Changes made during thetransactional execution are not committed to the architectural state ofthe processor until the transactional execution successfully completes.

In a variation on this embodiment, the system successfully completes thetransactional execution by atomically committing changes made during thetransactional execution, and resuming normal non-transactionalexecution.

In a further variation, while committing changes made during thetransactional execution, the system commits register file changes madeduring transactional execution and clears load marks from cache lines.The system also treats store-marked cache lines as locked, therebycausing other processes to wait to access the store-marked cache lines.The system subsequently commits store buffer entries generated duringtransactional execution to memory, which involves unmarking, and therebyunlocking, corresponding store-marked cache lines.

In a variation of the commit instruction, after committing changes madeduring the transactional execution, the system commences transactionalexecution of the block of instructions following the commit instruction.

In a variation on this embodiment, the commit instruction is a nativemachine code instruction of the processor.

In a variation on this embodiment, the commit instruction is defined ina platform-independent programming language.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that supportsexecuting a fail instruction, which terminates transactional executionof a block of instructions. During operation, the system facilitatestransactional execution of a block of instructions within a program,wherein changes made during the transactional execution are notcommitted to the architectural state of the processor until thetransactional execution successfully completes. If a fail instruction isencountered during this transactional execution, the system terminatesthe transactional execution without committing results of thetransactional execution to the architectural state of the processor.

In a variation on this embodiment, terminating the transactionalexecution involves discarding changes made during the transactionalexecution.

In a variation on this embodiment, while discarding changes made duringthe transactional execution, the system discards register file changesand clears load marks from cache lines. The system also drains storebuffer entries generated during transactional execution, and clearsstore marks from cache lines.

In a variation on this embodiment, while terminating the transactionalexecution, the system branches to a location specified by acorresponding start transactional execution (STE) instruction.

In a variation on this embodiment, while terminating the transactionalexecution, the system branches to a location specified by the failinstruction.

In a variation on this embodiment, while terminating the transactionalexecution, the system attempts to re-execute the block of instructions.

In a variation on this embodiment, the fail instruction is a nativemachine code instruction of the processor.

In a variation on this embodiment, the fail instruction is defined in aplatform-independent programming language.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer system in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates how a critical section is executed in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 presents a flow chart illustrating the transactional executionprocess in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 presents a flow chart illustrating a start transactionalexecution (STE) operation in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 presents a flow chart illustrating how load marking is performedduring transactional execution in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 6 presents a flow chart illustrating how store marking is performedduring transactional execution in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 7 presents a flow chart illustrating how a commit operation isperformed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 presents a flow chart illustrating how changes are discardedafter transactional execution completes unsuccessfully in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates instructions to support transactional execution inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is presented to enable any person skilled inthe art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context ofa particular application and its requirements. Various modifications tothe disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled inthe art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied toother embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit andscope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accordedthe widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosedherein.

Computer System

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer system 100 in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. Computer system 100 can generallyinclude any type of computer system, including, but not limited to, acomputer system based on a microprocessor, a mainframe computer, adigital signal processor, a portable computing device, a personalorganizer, a device controller, and a computational engine within anappliance. As is illustrated in FIG. 1, computer system 100 includesprocessors 101 and level 2 (L2) cache 120, which is coupled to mainmemory (not shown). Processor 102 is similar in structure to processor101, so only processor 101 is described below.

Processor 101 has two register files 103 and 104, one of which is an“active register file” and the other of which is a backup “shadowregister file.” In one embodiment of the present invention, processor101 provides a flash copy operation that instantly copies all of thevalues from register file 103 into register file 104. This facilitates arapid register checkpointing operation to support transactionalexecution.

Processor 101 also includes one or more functional units, such as adder107 and multiplier 108. These functional units are used in performingcomputational operations involving operands retrieved from registerfiles 103 or 104. As in a conventional processor, load and storeoperations pass through load buffer 111 and store buffer 112.

Processor 101 additionally includes a level one (L1) data cache 115,which stores data items that are likely to be used by processor 101.Note that each line in L1 data cache 115 includes a “load marking bit,”which indicates that a data value from the line has been loaded duringtransactional execution. This load marking bit is used to determinewhether any interfering memory references take place duringtransactional execution as is described below with reference to FIGS.3-8. Processor 101 also includes an L1 instruction cache (not shown).

Note that load marking does not necessarily have to take place in L1data cache 115. In general load marking can take place at any levelcache, such as L2 cache 120. However, for performance reasons, the loadmarking takes place at the cache level that is closest the processor aspossible, which in this case is L1 data cache 115. Otherwise, loadswould have to go to L2 cache 120 even on an L1 hit.

L2 cache 120 operates in concert with L1 data cache 115 (and acorresponding L1 instruction cache) in processor 101, and with L1 datacache 117 (and a corresponding L1 instruction cache) in processor 102.Note that L2 cache 120 is associated with a coherency mechanism 122,such as the reverse directory structure described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/186,118, entitled, “Method and Apparatus forFacilitating Speculative Loads in a Multiprocessor System,” filed onJun. 26, 2002, by inventors Shailender Chaudhrry and Marc Tremblay(Publication No. US-2002-0199066-A1). This coherency mechanism 122maintains “copyback information” 121 for each cache line. This copybackinformation 121 facilitates sending a cache line from L2 cache 120 to arequesting processor in cases where the current version of the cacheline must first be retrieved from another processor.

Each line in L2 cache 120 includes a “store marking bit,” whichindicates that a data value has been stored to the line duringtransactional execution. This store marking bit is used to determinewhether any interfering memory references take place duringtransactional execution as is described below with reference to FIGS.3-8. Note that store marking does not necessarily have to take place inL2 cache 120.

Ideally, the store marking takes place in the cache level closest to theprocessor where cache lines are coherent. For write-through L1 datacaches, writes are automatically propagated to L2 cache 120. However, ifan L1 data cache is a write-back cache, we perform store marking in theL1 data cache. (Note that the cache coherence protocol ensures that anyother processor that subsequently modifies the same cache line willretrieve the cache line from the L1 cache, and will hence become awareof the store mark.)

Executing a Critical Section

FIG. 2 illustrates how a critical section is executed in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention. As is illustrated in theleft-hand side of FIG. 2, a process that executes a critical sectiontypically acquires a lock associated with the critical section beforeentering the critical section. If the lock has been acquired by anotherprocess, the process may have to wait until the other process releasesthe lock. Upon leaving the critical section, the process releases thelock. (Note that the terms “thread” and “process” is usedinterchangeably throughout this specification.)

A lock can be associated with a shared data structure. For example,before accessing a shared data structure, a process can acquire a lockon the shared data structure. The process can then execute a criticalsection of code that accesses the shared data structure. After theprocess is finished accessing the shared data structure, the processreleases the lock.

In contrast, in the present invention, the process does not acquire alock, but instead executes a start transactional execution (STE)instruction before entering the critical section. If the criticalsection is successfully completed without interference from otherprocesses, the process performs a commit operation, to commit changesmade during transactional execution. This sequence of events isdescribed in more detail below with reference to FIGS. 3-8.

Note that in one embodiment of the present invention a compiler replaceslock-acquiring instructions with STE instructions, and also replacescorresponding lock releasing instructions with commit instructions.(Note that there may not be a one-to-one correspondence between replacedinstructions. For example, a single lock acquisition operation comprisedof multiple instructions may be replaced by a single STE instruction.)The above discussion presumes that the processor's instruction set hasbeen augmented to include an STE instruction and a commit instruction.These instructions are described in more detail below with reference toFIGS. 3-9.

Transactional Execution Process

FIG. 3 presents a flow chart illustrating how transactional executiontakes place in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Aprocess first executes an STE instruction prior to entering of acritical section of code (step 302). Next, the system transactionallyexecutes code within the critical section, without committing results ofthe transactional execution (step 304).

During this transactional execution, the system continually monitorsdata references made by other processes, and determines if aninterfering data access (or other type of failure) takes place duringtransactional execution. If not, the system atomically commits allchanges made during transactional execution (step 308) and then resumesnormal non-transactional execution of the program past the criticalsection (step 310).

On the other hand, if an interfering data access is detected, the systemdiscards changes made during the transactional execution (step 312), andattempts to re-execute the critical section (step 314).

In one embodiment of the present invention, the system attempts thetransactionally re-execute the critical section zero, one, two or moretimes. If these attempts are not successful, the system reverts back tothe conventional technique of acquiring a lock on the critical sectionbefore entering the critical section, and then releasing the lock afterleaving the critical section.

Note that an interfering data access can include a store by anotherprocess to a cache line that has been load marked by the process. It canalso include a load or a store by another process to a cache line thathas been store marked by the process.

Also note that circuitry to detect interfering data accesses can beeasily implemented by making minor modifications to conventional cachecoherence circuitry. This conventional cache coherence circuitrypresently generates signals indicating whether a given cache line hasbeen accessed by another processor. Hence, these signals can be used todetermine whether an interfering data access has taken place.

Starting Transactional Execution

FIG. 4 presents a flow chart illustrating a start transactionalexecution (STE) operation in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. This flow chart illustrates what takes place duringstep 302 of the flow chart in FIG. 3. The system starts by checkpointingthe register file (step 402). This can involve performing a flash copyoperation from register file 103 to register file 104 (see FIG. 1). Inaddition to checkpointing register values, this flash copy can alsocheckpoint various state registers associated with the currentlyexecuting process. In general, the flash copy operation checkpointsenough state to be able to restart the corresponding thread.

At the same time the register file is checkpointed, the STE operationalso causes store buffer 112 to become “gated” (step 404). This allowsexisting entries in store buffer to propagate to the memory sub-system,but prevents new store buffer entries generated during transactionalexecution from doing so.

The system then starts transactional execution (step 406), whichinvolves load-marking and store-marking cache lines, if necessary, aswell as monitoring data references in order to detect interferingreferences.

Load Marking Process

FIG. 5 presents a flow chart illustrating how load marking is performedduring transactional execution in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. During transactional execution of a critical section,the system performs a load operation. In performing this load operationif the load operation has been identified as a load operation that needsto be load-marked, system first attempts to load a data item from L1data cache 115 (step 502). If the load causes a cache hit, the system“load marks” the corresponding cache line in L1 data cache 115 (step506). This involves setting the load marking bit for the cache line.Otherwise, if the load causes a cache miss, the system retrieves thecache line from further levels of the memory hierarchy (step 508), andproceeds to step 506 to load mark the cache line in L1 data cache 115.

Store Marking Process

FIG. 6 presents a flow chart illustrating how store marking is performedduring transactional execution in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. During transactional execution of a critical section,the system performs a store operation. If this store operation has beenidentified as a store operation that needs to be store-marked, thesystem first prefetches a corresponding cache line for exclusive use(step 602). Note that this prefetch operation will do nothing if theline is already located in cache and is already in an exclusive usestate.

Since in this example L1 data cache 115 is a write-through cache, thestore operation propagates through L1 data cache 115 to L2 cache 120.The system then attempts to lock the cache line corresponding to thestore operation in L2 data cache 115 (step 604). If the correspondingline is in L2 cache 120 (cache hit), the system “store marks” thecorresponding cache line in L2 cache 120 (step 610). This involvessetting the store marking bit for the cache line. Otherwise, if thecorresponding line is not in L2 cache 120 (cache miss), the systemretrieves the cache line from further levels of the memory hierarchy(step 608) and then proceeds to step 610 to store mark the cache line inL2 cache 120.

Next, after the cache line is store marked in step 610, the systementers the store data into an entry of the store buffer 112 (step 612).Note that this store data will remain in store buffer 112 until asubsequent commit operation takes place, or until changes made duringthe transactional execution are discarded.

Note that a cache line that is store marked by a given thread can beread by other threads. Note that this may cause the given thread to failwhile the other threads continue.

Commit Operation

FIG. 7 presents a flow chart illustrating how a commit operation isperformed after transactional execution completes successfully inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. This flow chartillustrates what takes place during step 308 of the flow chart in FIG.3.

The system starts by treating store-marked cache lines as though theyare locked,(step 702). This means other processes that request astore-marked line must wait until the line is no longer locked beforethey can access the line. This is similar to how lines are locked inconventional caches.

Next, the system clears load marks from L1 data cache 115 (step 704).

The system then commits entries from store buffer 112 for stores thatare identified as needing to be marked, which were generated during thetransactional execution, into the memory hierarchy (step 706). As eachentry is committed, a corresponding line in L2 cache 120 is unlocked.

The system also commits register file changes (step 708). For example,this can involve functionally performing a flash copy between registerfile 103 and register file 104 in the system illustrated in FIG. 1.

Discarding Changes

FIG. 8 presents a flow chart illustrating how changes are discardedafter transactional execution completes unsuccessfully in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention. This flow chart illustrateswhat takes place during step 312 of the flow chart in FIG. 3. The systemfirst discards register file changes made during the transactionalexecution (step 802). This can involve either clearing or simplyignoring register file changes made during transactional execution. Thisis easy to accomplish because the old register values were checkpointedprior to commencing transactional execution. The system also clears loadmarks from cache lines in L1 data cache 115 (step 804), and drains storebuffer entries generated during transactional execution withoutcommitting them to the memory hierarchy (step 806). At the same time,the system unmarks corresponding L2 cache lines. Finally, in oneembodiment of the present invention, the system branches to a targetlocation specified by the STE instruction (step 808). The code at thistarget location attempts to re-execute the critical section as isdescribed above with reference to step 314 of FIG. 1.

STE Instruction

Referring to FIG. 9, STE instruction 900 marks the beginning of a blockof instructions to be executed transactionally. When STE instruction 900is encountered during program execution, the system commencestransactional execution of the block of instruction immediatelyfollowing STE instruction 900. Changes made during this transactionalexecution are not committed to the architectural state of the processoruntil the transactional execution successfully completes, at which pointall of the changes are committed in one atomic operation as describedabove with reference to FIG. 7.

Note that STE instruction 900 includes an operation code (op code) 902,which identifies the STE instruction and a branch target 903. Branchtarget 903 contains a PC-relative branch target that specifies where tojump to when a failure occurs during transactional execution.

Instead of jumping to a branch target during a failure, the system canalternatively take other actions, such as automatically attempting there-execute the block of instructions, or attempting to acquire a lock onthe block of instructions and then re-executing the block ofinstructions. The system can also set state information within theprocessor to indicate a failure during transactional execution of theblock of instructions. This enables other software executed by theprocessor to manage the failure.

STE instruction 900 is somewhat unique in that its semantics are definedby what happens after the instruction, in a following transactionallyexecuted block of code. If a commit instruction is successfully reached,STE instruction 900 behaves as if it were a NOOP. In this case, the codein the critical section following STE instruction 900 is successfullycompleted, and execution resumes with the code following the commitinstruction.

On the other hand, if a commit instruction is not successfully reached,the STE instruction behaves as if it were an annulling “branch always”instruction that causes a status register to be updated with a valueindicating the reason for failure. In this case, no visible effectremains from the instructions in the unsuccessful critical section.

Failures can arise from a number of sources. For example, in oneembodiment of the present invention, transactional execution isconsidered to have failed if any of the following events occur beforereaching a commit instruction (1) a fail instruction is reached; (2) aninstruction not allowed in critical sections is encountered, such asFLUSH, MEMBAR, DONE, RETRY, and any write of an ASR register, privilegedregister or internal ASI register; (3) a trap occurs; (4) an interruptoccurs; (5) a coherent load or store operation from another processormay have caused the sequence of loads and stores within the criticalsection to not appear atomic to other processors; (6) the processor runsout of hardware resources to buffer store operations from the criticalsection; (7) the processor runs out of hardware resources to track loadoperations from the critical section; and (8) too many stallingoperations are encountered. This can be caused, for instance, by toomany operations generating cache misses.

Commit Instruction

The commit instruction 910 marks the end of a block of instructions tobe executed transactionally. Commit instruction 910 is used inconjunction with STE instruction 900 to delineate a block ofinstructions to be transactionally executed, such as a critical section.When commit instruction 910 is encountered during execution of aprogram, the system completes transactional execution of the block ofinstruction immediately preceding the commit instruction. This involvesatomically committing changes made during the transactional execution tothe architectural state of the processor as is described above withreference to FIG. 7. The system also resumes normal nontransactionalexecution.

If a commit instruction is reached, and there was no preceding STEinstruction, the commit instruction is treated as a NOOP.

Referring to FIG. 9, the commit instruction 910 includes an op code 912,which identifies the instruction, and no operand is required.

In a variation of the commit instruction, after committing changes madeduring the transactional execution, the system resumes transactionalexecution of instructions following the commit instruction. Hence,instead of terminating transactional execution, the system commits thechanges made during transactional execution thus far and resumestransactional execution.

Fail Instruction

Fail instruction 920 terminates transactional execution withoutcommitting results of the transactional execution to the architecturalstate of the processor. Hence, fail instruction 920 directs the hardwareto revert back to the program state at the point of the preceding STEinstruction. This involves discarding changes made during transactionalexecution as is described above with reference to FIG. 8.

After the changes are discarded, the system can perform a number ofdifferent actions. In one embodiment of the present invention, thesystem branches to a branch target specified by a corresponding starttransactional execution (STE) instruction. In another embodiment, thesystem branches to a location specified by the fail instruction itself,such as alternative branch target 923 in fail instruction 920 in FIG. 3.In yet another embodiment, the system attempts to re-execute the blockof instructions.

Note that instead of immediately causing the transactional execution tofail, the fail instruction can simply set state information within theprocessor to indicate that a failure has occurred, and the actualfailure actions can take place later, for example upon encountering asubsequent commit instruction.

If a fail instruction is reached, and there was no preceding STEinstruction, the fail instruction is treated as a NOOP.

Referring to FIG. 9, the fail instruction 920 includes an op code 912,which identifies the instruction, and possibly an alternative branchtarget 923.

Note that to facilitate “transactional execution” software can specify aspeculative region of code, wherein selected memory accesses may becommitted atomically to the architectural state of the processor as atransaction.

The foregoing descriptions of embodiments of the present invention havebeen presented for purposes of illustration and description only. Theyare not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention tothe forms disclosed. Accordingly, many modifications and variations willbe apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. Additionally, the abovedisclosure is not intended to limit the present invention. The scope ofthe present invention is defined by the appended claims.

1. A method for executing a start transactional execution (STE)instruction to facilitate transactional execution on a processor,comprising: encountering the STE instruction during execution of aprogram, wherein the STE instruction marks the beginning of a block ofinstructions to be executed transactionally, and wherein the STEinstruction specifies an action to take if transactional execution ofthe block of instructions fails, and wherein the action to take includesacquiring a lock on a block of instructions; executing the STEinstruction prior to executing the block of instructions; and whereinexecuting the STE instruction involves commencing transactionalexecution of the block of instructions following the STE instruction;wherein changes made during the transactional execution are notcommitted to the architectural state of the processor until thetransactional execution successfully completes.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the action to take can include branching to a locationspecified by the STE instruction.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein theaction to take can include setting state information within theprocessor to indicate a failure during transactional execution of theblock of instructions, thereby enabling other software executed by theprocessor to manage the failure.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein ifthe transactional execution completes without encountering aninterfering data access from another process or other type of failure,the method further comprises: atomically committing changes made duringthe transactional execution, and resuming normal non-transactionalexecution.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein if an interfering dataaccess from another process is encountered during the transactionalexecution, the method further comprises: discarding changes made duringthe transactional execution; and attempting to re-execute the block ofinstructions.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein potentially interferingdata accesses from other processes are allowed to proceed during thetransactional execution of the block of instructions.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the block of instructions to be executedtransactionally comprises a critical section.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein commencing transactional execution of the block of instructionsinvolves: saving the state of processor registers; configuring theprocessor to mark cache lines during loads that take place duringtransactional execution; configuring the processor to mark cache linesduring stores that take place during transactional execution; andconfiguring the processor to continually monitor data references fromother threads to detect interfering data references.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the STE instruction is a native machine codeinstruction of the processor.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the STEinstruction is defined in a platform-independent programming language.11. A computer system that supports a start transactional execution(STE) instruction to facilitate transactional execution, wherein the STEinstruction marks the beginning of a block of instructions to beexecuted transactionally, the computer system comprising: a processor;and an execution mechanism within the processor; wherein uponencountering the STE instruction, the execution mechanism is configuredto: execute the STE instruction prior to executing the block ofinstructions; and to commence transactional execution of the block ofinstructions following the STE instruction; wherein changes made duringthe transactional execution are not committed to the architectural stateof the processor until the transactional execution successfullycompletes, wherein the STE instruction specifies an action to take iftransactional execution of the block of instructions fails, and whereinthe action take includes acquiring a lock on the block of instructions.12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the action to take caninclude branching to a location specified by the STE instruction. 13.The computer system of claim 11, wherein the action to take can includesetting state information within the processor to indicate a failureduring transactional execution of the block of instructions, therebyenabling other software executed by the processor to manage the failure.14. The computer system of claim 11, wherein if the transactionalexecution completes without encountering an interfering data access fromanother process or other type of failure, the execution mechanism isconfigured to: atomically commit changes made during the transactionalexecution, and to resume normal non-transactional execution.
 15. Thecomputer system of claim 11, wherein if an interfering data access fromanother process is encountered during the transactional execution, theexecution mechanism is configured to: discard changes made during thetransactional execution; and to attempt to re-execute the block ofinstructions.
 16. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the computersystem is configured to allow potentially interfering data accesses fromother processes to proceed during the transactional execution of theblock of instructions.
 17. The computer system of claim 11, wherein theblock of instructions to be executed transactionally comprises acritical section.
 18. The computer system of claim 11, wherein whilecommencing transactional execution of the block of instructions, theexecution mechanism is configured to: save the state of processorregisters; configure the processor to mark cache lines during loads thattake place during transactional execution; configure the processor tomark cache lines during stores that take place during transactionalexecution; and to configure the processor to continually monitor datareferences from other threads to detect interfering data references. 19.The computer system of claim 11, wherein the STE instruction is a nativemachine code instruction of the processor.
 20. The computer system ofclaim 11, wherein the STE instruction is defined in aplatform-independent programming language.
 21. A computing means thatsupports a start transactional execution (STE) instruction to facilitatetransactional execution, wherein the STE instruction marks the beginningof a block of instructions to be executed transactionally, comprising: aprocessing means; and an execution means within the processing means;wherein upon encountering the STE instruction, the execution means isconfigured to: execute the STE instruction prior to executing the blockof instructions; and to commence transactional execution of the block ofinstructions following the STE instruction; wherein changes made duringthe transactional execution are not committed to the architectural stateof the processor until the transactional execution successfullycompletes, wherein the STE instruction specifies an action to take iftransactional execution of the block of instructions fails, and whereinthe action take includes acquiring a lock on the block of instructions.